Short Biography of John H. Shedd

John Haskell Shed, was born in Mason, N. H., 1 Mar. 1771, but went to Rindge when 9 years old. He learned the trade of a blacksmith and in after years carried on this business together with farming. When a young man he went to Vermont in company with his brothers Samuel C. and Ebenezer (we cannot say they went there together, but they were there about the same time) and took up some land in 1794 near Windsor; his two brothers permanently settled in the vicinity, but John H. being unmarried, soon gave it up, returned to his former home in Rindge and marries his father's adopted daughter. His brothers used to hector him by relating the great joke he had played on them in getting them away up in Vermont and then marrying their adopted sister.

He exchanged his farm in Rindge (probably his father's homestead which he had or was to received) for his brother Abel's farm in Jaffrey, and settled there in December 1800; this farm has since been known as the "Witt" place and in recent times was owned by Benj. Pierce, Esq. He was a thrifty and successful farmer; it is said that when clearing his land he could chop and log, ready for burning, an acre in four days, or twice as much as was ordinarily done. His neighbors used to relate as other evidence of his great strength that he could alone lift a barrel of cider by the ends of the cask staves. Having in his boyhood received but a limited education, he improved it in later years by attending the short winter terms of the district school. After an industrious life he was cut off by death 17 July 1819, at the early age of forty-eight years.

He married at Rindge, N. H., 30 Nov. 1800, Susanna White, born in Leominster, Mass., 21 Oct. 1783, daughter of Joseph and Tabitha (Carter) White, who had been adopted in childhood by her husband's father Abel Shed; she married secondly, 24 Sept. 1822, Abel Kendall, born in Leominster, Mass. 13 Nov. 1770, died in New Ipswich, N. H., 13 Aug. 1846; she survived him and died at Derby, Vt., 27 Jul 1852.

Source: "Daniel Shed genealogy : ancestry and descendants of Daniel Shed of Braintree, Massachusetts, 1327-1920" ¹⁷¹⁰